EVERY morning for the last month, young beef producer Scott McClymont has brought 800 head of cattle out to graze along the road in north-west Queensland.

The 10 kilometre strip along the Flinders Highway, west of Richmond, is relatively dry and bare, but survival food nonetheless.

“We bring them out about quarter to six and then usually about 10 or 11 they’re sort of thirsty, so we pick them all back up and take them to the paddock to have a drink and that’s it,” Mr McClymont explained.

“[We’re] pretty much just trying to hold it out until we get some rain or think of something else to do with them; try to keep them alive.”

Mr McClymont was at one of the big beef family’s properties west of Richmond for four years before moving to Rosella Plains Station, Mount Garnet, two years ago.

The cattle - ranging in age from six-month-old weaners to two-year-olds who “weren’t big enough to go on the boat” – were brought down from Rosella.